Herbert Marcus had an offer that most 27-year-olds could only imagine.

Together with two partners — his sister Carrie and her husband, A.L. Neiman — Marcus was the owner of a successful marketing and promotion business in Atlanta in 1905. "They were so successful that at the end of two years they had had two offers to sell out," wrote Herbert's son Stanley in his autobiography, "Minding the Store."

"One offer was for $25,000 in cash, and the other was the franchise for the state of Missouri or Kansas for a relatively new product called 'Coca-Cola.' They apparently were too smart to be taken in by this unknown soft drink, so they took the $25,000 in cash instead, returning to Dallas to start a business of their own, to be run in a manner they had dreamed about."

The Marcus family still jokes about the millions they might have made, and with so much less work than their pioneering department store would have required.

But that store, Neiman Marcus, realized a dream for Herbert Marcus and Carrie Neiman, a labor of love that also generated serious wealth.

"My grandfather and his sister had nursed this idea for a long time," said Richard Marcus, Stanley's son and Herbert's grandson. "My dad used to say it was the worst possible business decision if you ran the numbers, but it was about their dream and what they wanted to do."

High Aims

Herbert Marcus (1878-1950) was born in Louisville, Ky.

Marcus' Keys

Built a retail empire of dozens of stores, garnering profit in the millions, and a name synonymous with quality and luxury.

Overcame: Starting in a dusty town unfamiliar with the finer things, populated with people who mostly hadn't traveled abroad.

Lesson: Work hard, stress quality and put the customer first.

"Don't ever underestimate the critical judgment of wealthy American women of discrimination. They are never satisfied with less than the best, nor am I."

He completed only a few months of high school before dropping out at 15 for financial reasons. Soon he moved to Hillsboro, Texas, and worked as a janitor and a clerk, according to the Texas State Historical Association.

By 1899, he was in Dallas, selling life insurance and wholesale pants, on the way to finding his calling.

Soon he joined the Sanger Bros. department store as a shoe salesman and rose to buyer for the boys' department.

Carrie Neiman, four years younger, was already the blouse buyer and a leading saleswoman at another department store, A. Harris, when her husband enticed the two siblings to Atlanta to open the short-lived promotions business.

Back in Dallas, which the siblings considered their adopted home, the new Neiman Marcus store opened on Sept. 10, 1907. It featured a 50-foot storefront in the heart of Dallas' retail district — amid plenty of competition.

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